Cube

Like talking to a brick wall
Josie Cavallaro

24 May - 26 June, 2006

‘The notion that the city speaks for itself conceals the identity of those who speak through the city.’

The original aim of this exhibition was to draw attention to individual acts of resistance within public and civic spaces. The physical remnants of individual frustrations, such as text scratched into the veneers of urban furniture, were to be documented and highlighted as part of this work. However, in considering such actions, I became increasingly interested in those fleeting urges of resistance that don't get realised, reactions to the failings of public space that bypass documentation. No souvenir scarring on the back of the toilet door. NOTHING!

Like talking to a brick wall ccites one such incident, which I observed at a suburban train station. The amplification of this commonplace occurrence aims to question the ironies of public space and its function.

A fountain deprived of its majestic splendor sits awkwardly in the exhibition space. Yellow fluid which circulates in the fountain further disrupts this image. Through this dysfunctional form a binary relationship is created between protest and failure, function and need. In essence, this exhibition aims to explore this elusive juncture where individual, collective and community expression disrupts notions of security and urban renewal.

Deutsche, Roslyn, Evictions. MIT, 1996; xxiv

Josie Cavallaro